CAG.1813 Ian Healy, Idyllic, 1997, oil on board, 122 x 122 cm. Purchased, 1998. © the artist.
Idyllic (1997) by Ian Healy juxtaposes colour with recognisable form. The lower half of the painting is a blue wave-like wash that engulfs a rock-like shape, while the upper half is cloud-like in warm ochre.
As viewers, we may understand it solely for the feelings of happiness or peace that it conjures and captures. First displayed as part of the artist’s solo exhibition here in 1997, it has a pleasurable looseness or fluidity and is, in essence, a non-narrative hybrid of abstract and figurative landscape.
Ian Healy (b.1970) is a graduate of Crawford College of Art & Design (now MTU CCAD) and has had residencies in Lithuania and Catalunya. Over the past decade, he has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh), Mall Galleries (London), and Galerie Youn (Montreal). Increasingly figurative, his recent work has developed to embrace new subject matters, from heads to images of domestic buildings, but retains a focus on colour, form, and the abstract.
Idyllic (1997) by Ian Healy is featured in lucid abnormalities (Gibson Galleries) until 28 March.
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